Jordan Curry: Lone Wolf boss jailed for more than a decade over role in cocaine cartel, money laundering

A bikie kingpin police say helped head one of the country’s most powerful cocaine cartels has been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars in a US prison. Jordan Curry — who ran Australia’s Lone Wolf bikie gang from Dubai — was busted in an undercover operation led by the US Drug Enforcement Agency with the help of Australian authorities. That included undercover officers from WA Police, who were called in as part an elaborate web of covert cops who infiltrated Curry’s syndicate as he tried to move dirty cash out of the country. Curry was identified as one of the head honchos of The Commission, which was considered one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels. Curry was also responsible for funnelling drugs and dirty cash across the country — and talked about having total control of the drug trafficking trade in Australia to keep prices high. In 2021, the 42-year-old was arrested at Mykonos airport in Greece and extradited to the US where he was charged with money laundering and conspiring to import cocaine from South America, through the US to Australia. He pleaded guilty to the offences in the Southern District Court of Florida earlier this year. Last week, he was sentenced to 135 months behind bars — more than 11 years — to be backdated to the date of his arrest in July 2021. In 2020, the DEA launched an undercover operation aimed at dismantling Curry’s syndicate, with intelligence suggesting he was moving bulk cash and cryptocurrency averaging $3 million a week. Police intelligence suggested that what Curry needed most was a way to move the cash out of Australia. He organised money drops in cities across the country, including Perth. In May 2020, officers from WA Police were called in to pose as members of an international money laundering syndicate and picked up half-a-million dollars in drug money for Curry. Similar tactics were successfully carried out by Queensland, Victorian and NSW Police, with a total of almost $3 million moved by officers under the coordination of the DEA, authorities revealed. Curry intended to transport up to 500kg of Colombian cocaine, hidden in machinery, from Colombia, through Mexico to Los Angeles and then into Australia, authorities say. At his sentencing, the court recommended Curry detained in the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Jessup, Georgia. A reference provided by Curry’s youngest brother, Blake, described his dysfunctional upbringing in regional NSW with a violent father who was also a member of a motorcycle club. The reference describes how he got “taken under the wing” of his father’s criminal associates after his father took his own life. “Since Jordan was arrested in Greece we started speaking again which became more and more regular,” his brother wrote. “He constantly tells me he is ashamed of what he has done and where he is. “He wishes he could turn back time to our father’s funeral and not go down the path that has left him here. He has said it was a meaningless life that he no longer wants and is remorseful for ever being a part of it.” After Curry’s guilty plea, Police Commissioner Col Blanch said he was proud of his officers for the “small role in this very big job against organised crime”. Upon his release, Curry will be subject to a five-year supervision order.